‘The Dupes’ – Palestine Cinema Days – 2nd Nov 2025

Join us to the screening of Tewfik Saleh’s The Dupes as part of the Palestine Cinema days around the world 2025 on 2nd November 2025.

The Dupes is a powerful political drama based on the novella Men in the Sun by Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani. It follows the tragic journey of three Palestinian refugees—Abu Qais, Assad, and Marwan—each from a different generation, who are desperate to escape the harsh conditions of refugee camps in Lebanon and seek a better life in Kuwait.

They pay a smuggler to transport them across the desert hidden inside a water tanker. As they approach the Kuwaiti border under the blazing sun, the smuggler fails to open the tanker in time.

The three men die inside, suffocated by the heat. The film ends with the haunting question:

“Why didn’t they knock on the walls of the tank?”

Doors: 6pm
Screening: 6.30pm
Runtime: 107 minutes
Language: Arabic with captions in English

Free but ticketed. Reserve a seat here

Tewfik Saleh was a pioneering Egyptian filmmaker known for his realistic and political cinema. Born in Alexandria in 1926, he studied film in Paris. His bold films tackled deep social and political issues, most notably “The Dupes” (1972), based on Ghassan Kanafani’s novel “Men in the Sun.” Saleh was known for his humanistic style and independent stance, often clashing with censorship authorities. He received several international awards and passed away in 2013, leaving behind a powerful legacy in Arab cinema.